Side Yard Makeover: Easy Care and Attractive

Our simple side yard makeover is easy to maintain and looks sharp year-round. We went from a mushy, unused side yard to a grass-free landscaped beauty! There are many before-and-after images for you to see!

Back in 2007, when we bought our home, there wasn’t any landscaping to speak of, however there was a lot of grass.

After several years of mowing grass, dealing with grass allergies, and running out of gardening space, we embarked on a major front yard makeover.

Read more about this large-scale yard makeover here: How to Plan Your Dream Front Yard!

We settled on this design from the landscaping company we worked with:

It was exactly what we were looking for, especially for our sad-looking side yard which served only to get your sneakers stuck in the swampy, muddy grass.

Here’s a blurry picture of the side yard, just as renovations were about to begin. (Apologies for the blurry quality, but not surprisingly: it’s the only image I have of this unloved space!)

You can see how lumpy the side yard was. Whenever we had to walk around to the backyard, we would hug the side of the house, where we had the best shot of keeping our sneakers or sandals on our feet and free from mud.

Please note: Our side yard makeover was just one part of a massive front yard landscape renovation done by a professional landscape company, so it isn’t possible for me to tell you exactly how many days this specific side yard project took. Remember to allow for possible delays due to weather, availability of materials needed, etc.

Removing the Grass

The first step, after having the utilities marked out, was for the landscapers to remove all of the grass.

Luckily, the landscapers were experienced enough to know that sometimes utilities do not get marked out correctly.

In our case, the spray paint is what was marked out…versus the wire where it was actually located.

Definitely happy to report that no landscapers were electrocuted on this project!

With the dirt removed, we were already thrilled, knowing we were about to have a useful and attractive side yard.

Hardscaping

The hardscaping would be paver edging — used all over the front yard — as well as sand-colored gravel and large stepping stones in this side yard.

(Missing from the above picture are red stepping stones which were also used.)

The pavers were cemented into place, following the agreed-upon design.

I loved having curved edges break up the straight long line of the original side yard. (I’ll share the rest of the front yard makeover in future posts.)

Cement was dyed to match and placed in between each paver. This was a time-consuming process, to be sure, but the end result is worth it.

While the cement dried, work began on leveling the side yard.

Plants

Working with the landscapers, we chose easy-care evergreens to frame the side yard.

There is a row of Emerald Green Arborvitaes for privacy on one side:

Against the house, we have a row of Winter Gem Boxwoods:

Hardscaping, Part Two

With the evergreens in place, next it was time to fill in the space with gravel:

The stepping stones were next:

Lighting

The following Spring, we added the accent lighting.

I’m sharing this picture (below) of the lighting marked out because it rained that day, and I love the way this side yard glows when it rains — the plants seem more vibrant against the deeper colors of the gravel and stepping stones.

You can also see our Dappled Willow “wall” in the backyard past the fence. We created that entire wall from one shrub!

Welcome, Lisa! So glad you found my blog! I’m amazed at the amount of blue flowers out there too — it’s such a unique color in the garden, as it isn’t one of the colors most readily noticed at garden centers among all of the usual pinks and yellow and reds and purples! Glad you enjoyed the photos — I enjoyed going out at different times during the same day to take them, partly as my own experiment to see how they would “translate” from what I see every day / evening into pictures. I’ve got a few old posts on here about Little Egg Harbor, as we were hit pretty hard by Superstorm Sandy years ago, although our neighborhood was spared, compared to so many devastated areas around us. Hope you’ll stop by again!

Pet Scribbles is where I share my craft tutorials, home and garden projects, and occasional stories about my cats. I can never have enough pretty craft paints to work with, and I love to make things look time-worn with distressing and aging. Gardening is my therapy!

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